With the newest contact lens designs and materials available today, our doctors are able to fit patients who may not have had success wearing contact lenses in the past. Whether due to poor vision, astigmatism, comfort issues, or dry eyes there are many more choices in contact lens materials to meet those challenges.

There are several types of Contact lenses but only a thorough examination of your eyes AND your lifestyle
will reveal the answer.

A few examples of Contact lenses are:

Daily Disposables
The shortest replacement schedule is single use (daily disposable)
lenses, which are disposed of each night. These may be best for patients
with ocular allergies or other conditions, because it limits deposits of
antigens and protein. Single use lenses are also useful for people who
use contacts infrequently, or for purposes (e.g. swimming or other
sporting activities) where losing a lens is likely.

Two-week Replacement Disposables
The main advantage of wearing disposable lenses is that you put a fresh
pair of lenses in your eyes every two weeks. Another advantage is ease
of care with multipurpose solutions.

One-month Replacement Disposables
Similar to two-week replacement lenses but you throw them out every 30
days.

Conventional Contact Lenses
These are the original soft contact lenses. It is recommended these
lenses be replaced on a yearly basis. Conventional lenses are more care
intensive than disposable lenses.

Toric
for Astigmatism
Toric lenses are made from the same materials as regular contact lenses
but have a few extra characteristics:

• They correct for both spherical and cylindrical aberration.
• They may have a specific 'top' and 'bottom', as they are not
symmetrical around their center and must not be rotated. Lenses must be
designed to maintain their orientation regardless of eye movement. Often
lenses are thicker at the bottom and this thicker zone is pushed down by
the upper eyelid during blinking to allow the lens to rotate into the
correct position (with this thicker zone at the 6 o'clock position on
the eye). Toric lenses are usually marked with tiny striations to assist
their fitting.
• They are usually more expensive to produce than non-toric lenses

Bifocal Contact Lenses
Multifocal soft contact lenses are more complex to
manufacture and require more skill to fit. All soft bifocal
contact lenses are considered "simultaneous vision" because
both far and near vision corrections are presented
simultaneously to the retina, regardless of the position of
the eye. Of course, only one correction is correct, the
incorrect correction causes blur. Commonly these are
designed with distance correction in the center of the lens
and near correction in the periphery, or vice versa..

In an initial exam, the eye doctor will examine your eyes to
determine if you can wear contact lenses. Your prescription
and the curvature of your eye are measured and the doctor
will discuss any special needs you may have. The doctor will
then determine the type of contact lenses that best fit your
eyes and provide you with the most accurate vision while
ensuring that your eyes remain healthy with the lenses. If
trial lenses are available in the office, you may be able to
go home with lenses the same day. However, if your
prescription or curvature warrant, contact lenses may need
to be ordered and a contact lens fitting appointment
scheduled when the lenses arrive.

When the lenses are ready, a fitting examination is
scheduled as a practice session for you to try your new
lenses and to become adept at lens insertion and removal.
The doctor will also look at the lenses on your eyes and
determine if any changes need to be made. If the lenses fit
well and you are seeing well with them, a checkup exam is
scheduled 1 week after the practice session. If new lenses
are ordered, we will schedule a dispensing appointment when
those lenses arrive.

Seeing 20/20 isn’t the only reason for a contact lens exam.
Since the eye is a sensitive organ, it is susceptible to
irritations that may be caused by contact lens wear.
Problems that are undetectable to you can develop into more
serious conditions. It is vital to your eye health to make
sure that your contact lenses fit properly and are allowing
enough oxygen to reach the cells of the cornea. During the
annual contact lens exam, your eye care professional
evaluates the condition of the lenses and can tell if any
changes are warranted in the lenses’ fitting.

There are two main reasons why you should not swim or
shower with your contact lenses – possible loss of the
lenses and, most importantly, contamination of the
lenses. Underwater, contact lenses may be washed out of
your eye, or above water a small wave or splash may take the
lens with it. Contact lenses, especially the soft
variety, will absorb any chemicals or germs in the
water. They will then stay in or on the lens for several
hours, irritating the eyes and possibly causing
infection.

The deciding factor for whether a child should wear contact
lenses should be that child’s maturity level. Children of
all ages can tolerate contact lenses well, but they must be
responsible for the care of the lenses. Parents should make
that judgment based on the child’s personal hygiene habits
and their ability to perform household chores.

“Hard” lenses;
These lenses were the original contact lenses made several
decades ago from a plastic called PMMA. For a long time they
were the only kind of lens but they are seldom used anymore as
they have several drawbacks and have been superseded by “rigid”
lenses. Rigid, or gas permeable, lenses are similar to hard
lenses in design and appearance, however as the name suggests,
the material they are made of is permeable to gases.
“Soft” lenses;
Soft lenses are slightly larger and more flexible than rigid or
hard lenses. Soft lenses are made of materials which soak up
water, and it is this uptake of water that allows oxygen to
transfer to the cornea. Soft lens material itself is
impermeable, so the oxygen is transmitted via the water.

Extended lens wearers may have an increased risk for corneal
infections and corneal ulcers, primarily due to poor care
and cleaning of the lenses, tear film instability, and
bacterial stagnation. Corneal neovascularization has
historically been a common complication of extended lens
wear, though this does not appear to be a problem with
silicone hydrogel extended wear. The most common
complication of extended lens use is conjunctivitis, usually
allergic or giant papillary conjunctivitis (GPC), sometimes
associated with a poorly fitting contact lens.